Jean Regnier e le avversità della Francia (Guerra e letteratura nel secolo XV)

A long sequence of Les Fortunes et adversitez de Jean Regnier, a poem of almost five thousand lines in which Regnier relates his own captivity in the years 1432-1433, is dedicated to the war which afflicts France. In it the poet proposes a meditation upon its causes and its effects, and a quest for the means to take peace again in the kingdom. All themes, concepts, images which compose this sequence are found in a multitude of contemporary French texts, included the political and civil works of the great courtly poets. Also from this perspective, therefore, Les Fortunes et adversitez, wrongly considered by the critics as a self-nourished poem, emerge as a veritable poetical crossroads: what characterizes Regnier’s lines is the poignant personal participation to the tragedy afoot. He does not omit to reaffirm the general urgency to redeem from sin in order to obtain the pardon by God and consequently the peace. However, in his outlook war does not only offer a chance of expiation for princes and subjects, but also the spur to a moral and spiritual reform which will restore the ancient order in the French society.